The railway subsidiary DB Systel manages the corporate’s IT techniques. But the railway additionally desires to chop jobs on this space. The workforce defends itself.
“Systel broken = train broken”: The protest posters on the EVG railway and transport union’s rally in entrance of Frankfurt Central Station are clear.
“At some point the train will no longer run,” says Burkhard Nobbe, works council member of the EVG working group DB Systel GmbH. “Deutsche Bahn has a number of serious problems, IT is not one of them.”
There is uncertainty and a lack of knowledge amongst DB Systel workers. Why, many right here ask, does the DB board wish to create an IT drawback along with the numerous actual issues throughout the group?
Who or what’s DB Systel?
DB Systel is Deutsche Bahn’s inner IT service supplier. Around 7,200 individuals are employed at DB Systel’s three essential areas: round 1,600 in Berlin, round 650 in Erfurt and round 4,900 in Frankfurt am Main. DB Systel develops and operates the DB Navigator, the web timetable info and the reserving platform for the railways.
DB Systel additionally creates important purposes for rail operations such because the digital ebook timetable and the “Digital Timetable” mission. The timetable is transferred to the motive force’s cab of the locomotive through the digital ebook timetable, with out which no prepare journey can happen.
Point of rivalry: job cuts
In September 2025, DB Group introduced a workforce discount of 1,900 full-time positions at DB Systel by the tip of 2029. “Current plans that have not yet been confirmed even foresee a reduction of 4,000 jobs,” says the EVG working group DB Systel. Two out of three positions can be eradicated.
“Fundamentally, as a company we want and need to become leaner, faster and more customer-oriented,” a Bahn spokeswoman mentioned in protection of the plans. “This also applies to the group’s internal service providers and thus DB Systel. In the next few months, appropriate future concepts will therefore be developed as part of the restart.” As of now, no enterprise choices have been made, together with concerning areas.
More central IT service supplier indispensable
“It seems like it was shot from the hip,” says commerce unionist Nobbe. “You can’t turn an entire IT department inside out in the short term.” Both politicians and the railways are counting on the digitalization of the railways as a prerequisite for its future viability.
“Even today, a timetable for a train journey is still occasionally constructed with a pen and ruler and distributed across several drawing boards,” says Nobbe. “Allocating parts of DB Systel to another group company would be fatal.” DB Systel warns towards decentralization of IT competence.
The worry: exploding prices attributable to outsourcing of IT providers to different areas. Synergy results by central procurement, for instance of {hardware} or software program licenses, can solely be achieved if purchases are made centrally. EVG additionally warns towards price will increase and parallel constructions.
Cybersecurity at risk?
“The Deutsche Bahn rail network has become more and more dilapidated over the decades,” analyzes Nobbe. “A company’s IT can be destroyed much more quickly.”
In May 2017, a lot of Deutsche Bahn computer systems, together with many timetable screens at prepare stations, have been contaminated by a malicious code known as “Wannacry”. “The infection only happened because all of the infected computers were missing an important security update that had been provided a few days earlier,” mentioned the EVG working group DB Systel. “The infected computers were not operated by DB Systel, but were managed by other DB business areas themselves. Decentralized,” says Nobbe.
Just lately, in mid-February, a so-called DDoS assault paralyzed the railway’s info and reserving techniques with over a billion requests per minute. “Without DB Systel’s powerful cyber security, we wouldn’t be back up and running today. If cyber security is left in the hands of amateurs, nothing works anymore,” confirms Nobbe.
Rail reassures prospects
“We will not implement anything that endangers the operational security of our IT systems. Our IT services and information for customers continue to have the highest priority and are constantly being improved,” assures a railway spokeswoman.
“Digitalization and IT are an essential key to making the railway more punctual, more reliable and more economical. For this we need a strong internal IT service provider like DB Systel to drive and support our digitalization projects with full force.”
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/db-systel-stellenabbau-100.html